Louisiana Legislature enters six-week homestretch of 2012 session

Louisiana lawmakers enter final six weeks of the session with work to do House
Speaker Chuck Kleckley said that a lot of the heavy lifting remains as
the legislative session enters the six-week homestretch, such as passage
of major pension overhaul bills and the annual state budget, which are
interwoven.

Louisiana State University economist Jim Richardson

He said that the House's major retirement bills will be
debated on the House floor April 30, and a key landowner vs. oil company
bill by Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans, will be debated Wednesday.

He
said the plan to get the budget out of the House Appropriations
Committee is a little fuzzier because lawmakers are waiting on the
latest tax receipts data, which will be presented to revenue estimators
in early May.

The meeting will not be called, Kleckley said,
until a bill by Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, is passed that
would allow Louisiana State University economist Jim Richardson, who is
chairman of the estimating panel and is recovering from heart surgery,
to be able to attend or name a stand-in for the meeting. If he cannot,
the chancellor of LSU would name a temporary replacement. Alario's bill
is expected to be debated this week.